My Trans Webcomic fascination:
Thought i might share some good comics I loved over the last few years involving trans characters, and what they meant for me. Tbh this is mostly for me to reflect on, but I hope anyone who reads it finds it useful, and heck maybe someone will find something they click with out of it!
If you just want a brief summary/review just read the bit below the links.
Rain
https://rain.thecomicseries.com/
A high school drama with heavy queer themes, involving the transfem title character Rain exploring her identity and convoluted relationship drama. Very wholesome but sadly relatable to a lot of queer folks in a lot of its tougher moments.
Rain helped me admit to myself that I was trans fully, after tiptoeing around it internally in egg mode for a few months. More recently I caught up to it after the 15 years post, long having stopped reading and it helped me to work out that sadness isn't always negative, like damn girl you like media analysis and you hadn't internalised THE CONCEPT OF CATHARSIS.
I Want To Be A Cute Anime Girl https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/i-want-to-be-a-cute-anime-girl/list?title_no=349416
Cheryl is a transfem ball of sunshine, and her date (which I will spoil in the next paragraph) is excellently written. The charming art style change to big, detailed backgrounds with a lot of bold lighting in emphasized romantic moments really sells how anyone would find either of the two cute.
IWTBACAG (Mouthful jeez) was a more recent read, but absolutely helped open me up to the idea that being in a lesbian relationship was not in any respect odd or predatory for me (though i'm pan and still mostly date men) through Delilah and Cheryl's date. That imposter syndrome monologue kinda hit home and the response was the infinite sweetness that makes me love this comic.
Acception
https://www.webtoons.com/en/drama/acception/list?title_no=1513
A high school drama following Arcus, an indie fashion designer with VERY not indie background (minted) and his friend group, which has a habit of growing like a snowball given his infectious positivity. I will admit I occasionally cringed hard at miscommunication plots that felt a bit forced, but Arcus and the rest of the cast are ultimately pretty stupid teenagers so I think the comic gets away with it just fine. In its finest moments the comic is genuinely insightful and either heart-renching or candy sweet.
The most recently read of these, I was pointed to it by a friend and its very well done, but I can't say it had any large impact on me as a person through its minor trans rep or otherwise.
Shootaround
https://www.webtoons.com/en/drama/shoot-around/list?title_no=399&page=1
Shootaround is a zombie apocalypse that burns most of the tropes of the genre in favour of queer romance and found family narratives. It centres a women's basketball team and their coach, and I especially appreciated Chau Le, a Vietnamese trans girl whose straight romance was genuinely quite sweet. Sad they never addressed either grief over not having HRT or how it was acquired in a post-apocalyptic setting though, could've been interesting...
Really did appreciate Shootaround's consistent commitment to emotionally complex and genuinely understanding protagonists. They are well implied to give each other a lot of grace and that's a strength of the writing that helps really sell how strong their found family becomes. Beyond that though, Hotaru's saviour complex being recognised and treated as the form of self-destructive behaviour it is was helpful to realising that putting all that on myself is unfair. I wouldn't expect my friends to take all the weight, and I shouldn't expect myself to either.
My Dragon Girlfriend
https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/my-dragon-girlfriend/list?title_no=162918&page=1
I really liked this more for the wlw elements more than the trans ones but I love the fact that the trans rep isn't immediately shouted at you but rather just a character that happens to be relieved as such later. I will say, consent was handled oddly at one point. Blood drinking is taken as a parallel for sex but is necessary for vampires, so there is a scene that could come of creepy because a vampire character NEEDS blood and you could interpret it as a power trip to take advantage of that, though in context I found the scene quite sweet.
This is another recent one, and I can't say I took much out of it other than it being lovely romance - and quite kinky.
Kill Six Billion Demons
https://killsixbilliondemons.com/
This is my favourite webcomic ever, an action series with a lot to say philosophically about fate, freedom, violence and ruling. I am a huge fan of several characters and specifically the symbolism of their outfits (Solomon whose respectable, formal toga is shirtless in his main intro, the sleeves falling around the waist to show that his demeanour as emperor is a shallow facade above his tyrannical saviour complex and apathy towards the consequences of his BRUTAL violence). The trans character here is white chain, whose development through this comic is genuinely inspirational - to the point that I though Tom Bloom, the writer, was a trans man until I found out otherwise. Read it for yourself, PLEASE.
To commit heavily spoiling, white chain's CRUSADE of a fight against solomon in the tournament arc hit me hard upon 1st reading, with her not expecting to win but just to memorialise that she existed, she wasn't broken and she never gave up. Even when it meant death. I love that this wasn't a beautiful tragedy like it was set up, but actually payed off, I love that it didn't fix everything in Solomon's empire immediately and I love that white chain is still a mess privately afterwards. This, for me, is the best expression of the feeling behind 'death before detransition' in any media, period.
